This glossary defines standard eCommerce and accounting terms as applied in Fonteva Payments, as well as defining product-specific keywords.

Term

Description

Acquiring bank

The financial institution that maintains the merchant’s account.

Address Verification Service (AVS)

An industry tool used to screen online transactions for fraud by confirming the address provided by the purchaser matches the billing address on file with the credit card issuer.

Application Fees

Service fees assessed and subtracted from the merchant’s pending balance.

Available Balance

Sales transaction funds that are available to be paid out to the merchant bank account

Card Network

Businesses that provide the infrastructure required for credit card purchases. The largest card networks are Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover.

Charge

A payment received from a customer in exchange for a product or service.

Chargeback

Funds debited from your connected account and placed in a hold account, typically initiated by the customer’s issuing bank while processing a dispute.

Dispute

A process initiated by the customer’s issuing bank when the customer questions a charge.

ePayment

An ePayment record is created to store the responses received from electronic payment gateways.

Issuing Bank

The financial institution that issued the credit card used to make a purchase. For example, Citi or Bank of America.

Merchant account

A type of bank account that allows merchants to accept payments.

Payment Method

The types of payments accepted by a merchant. For example, credit cards, Apple Pay, or direct debit.

Payment Gateway

Payment gateways validate customer account information and transmit the data to your payment processor.

Payment Processor

The finance platform that transmits transaction details to all involved parties, then securely passes funds to the merchant account.

Payout

A transfer of funds to the merchant’s bank account.

Pending Balance

Sales transaction funds that have been validated but are not yet available to be paid out to the merchant bank account.

Connected Account

Your organization’s account within the Fonteva Payments platform.

Refund

A type of charge in which a request for funds is sent to the merchant’s bank, typically in exchange for a return.